BHP introduces Harris as new director
By Caroline Haviland
Laurel Harris was announced as the new director of the Baccalaureate Honors Program, a role she did not imagine for herself when she left her hometown in Montana years ago for a new beginning on the East Coast.
Harris, an associate professor of English at Rider, began her teaching career in search of a different job, but what she found was a passion she did not know she had.
After interviewing for an adjunct professor position at Kingsborough Community College in New York, Harris was asked to start the following day. She arrived without any experience or training.
“I absolutely fell in love with teaching,” said Harris. “I just love being in a room with students, creating knowledge together and talking about big questions and seeing how they encounter texts and where they come from.”
That job inspired Harris to work at numerous community colleges in the City University of New York system, which gave her an extensive background in teaching, before coming to Rider in 2014. Her time spent there influenced her research interests as she decided to focus on early 20th century women’s writing, communication technologies and late-to-post colonial connections.
Harris provides her research in classes such as Modern British Literature, Women in Film and Introduction to Women’s Studies. She has designed and taught two BHP courses alongside professors in the sociology and education department: “Under the Influence: Drugs, Deviance and Culture” and “Inclusive Education and Disabilities.”
“I learn a lot from the other instructors, and I learn a lot about my own discipline because I’m looking at it from a different lens,” Harris said. “Things that are obvious to me aren’t obvious to the other instructors, so then I have to go back and think, ‘Oh, what does that mean?’”
In her new role as director of BHP, Harris works with faculty in developing new curricula to ensure the range of classes allows BHP students to fulfill their general education requirements. Harris also advises students to help navigate their way through the overwhelming-but-flexible BHP curriculum.
“As my adviser, she has always done everything she could to make sure I would graduate on time. She has truly guided my experience at Rider,” said Emily Porter Siegel, a senior English literature major. “She is the professor that will answer my late-night emails and I’ve really felt so supported when working with her.”
Siegel, who uses they/them pronouns, chose to collaborate with Harris to complete their BHP capstone after working with her in the classroom.
“She is just such an amazing educator. My experience with her in class was incredible,” said Siegel. “She was willing to hear even my craziest responses and encouraged creative approaches to the text,” said Siegel. “I was so excited when I saw they made her BHP director because I know the program is in such good hands.”
Features and Entertainment Editors Madison Lewis and Grace Bertrand, Photo Editor Destiny Pagan, Opinion Editor Libby D’Orvilliers, and Copy Editors Raven Syed and Colleton are part of the Baccalaureate Honors Program and had no part in the writing or editing of this story.
